Essentially, you’re taking in the bulk of your calories from fat instead of from carbohydrates.

By doing this, you also tend to consume more protein, which helps you to feel full.

That can make a low-carb diet easier to follow and means that people naturally consume less when they are on one.

So, as a low-carb approach, it’s easy to see the relationship between Paleo and weight loss.

Realistically, the low-carb aspect of the diet alone suggests that it would be quite good at promoting weight loss, especially in people who struggle with following a conventional low-fat diet.

Is Paleo Healthy?

As I mentioned before, Paleo is popular and controversial.

There certainly are some good sides to the diet, but there are some questionable elements as well.

The Good

Many people that follow the diet absolutely swear by it and say that it revolutionized their health.

That may well be true.

For many people, the Paleo would be a healthy option because it involves switching away from heavily processed foods, artificial additives and many other potentially harmful items.

Instead, the Paleo diet has a strong focus on healthy and whole foods, including meat, fish, vegetables and fruit.

Without a doubt, that focus is great for health, especially for people who previously relied strongly on processed food.

Despite that, there are some things about the Paleo diet that are a little questionable.

The Bad

Personally, I have some issues with the general premise of the diet and I’m certainly not the only one.

Yes, our hunter-gatherer ancestors were probably healthier than us (although they didn’t live as long). But, they did also have very different lifestyles than we have today.

Those lifestyles included a lot more activity than we currently engage in.

Additionally, most people following the Paleo diet cut out specific food groups because our ancestors didn’t eat them, such as legumes and dairy.

This means that the diet ends up cutting out some food groups that we know are healthy.

Realistically, you can’t argue that our ancestors only ate healthy food, or that all of the changes to our diet since that point have been bad for us.

After all, some of the foods we eat now simply weren’t available to our ancestors, but that doesn’t necessarily make those foods unhealthy.

There are other arguments against the concept of the Paleo diet too, like the fact that we aren’t genetically the same as our ancestors or that there were many different diets in the Paleolithic era (12,13).

In fact, some people argue that people in the Paleolithic era ate a diet that looks nothing at all like the Paleo diet promoted today (14).

There’s even a TED talk on the topic if you want to know more about the science (15).

It also seems foolish to assume that a diet that was healthy for our ancestors is going to protect us against modern diseases (many of which didn’t even exist in the Paleolithic era).

Finally, the diet is also very challenging for the average person to follow and is quite labor-intensive (16).

If nothing else, you really need the time to shop around for the right ingredients and the time in your kitchen to create Paleo meals that taste good. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have that much time available, which is another strike against the diet.

Nevertheless, it is important to mention that many people are passionate about the Paleo diet and it has some staunch advocates. Perhaps the most significant example of this is Robb Wolf, who feels that Paleo is the healthiest possible way to eat.

Overall Implications

What does all this mean?

Well, for one thing, this discussion does mean that the Paleo diet can be a great starting point if you’re trying to eat a healthier diet or lose weight.

As I’ve said, a lot of the logic within the Paleo diet doesn’t make sense, but even then, some of the decisions are going to help you improve your health.

In fact, any shift towards fresh, whole and unprocessed foods is going to help with health and with weight loss.

However, I would personally argue towards using the Paleo diet as a starting point, rather than a be-all-end-all guide.

After all, it makes sense to choose foods that make sense in terms of health, rather than ones that fit into a specific set of guidelines.

That’s especially true in the case of the Paleo diet, as honestly, some of the Paleo guidelines are pretty arbitrary.

I’m not the only one to think this, and there is a growing interest in moving away from a strict Paleo diet and towards a rough Paleo template (e.g. 17,18,19). For example, a post at The Kittchen talks about using a modified Paleo diet.

Realistically, that move makes a lot of sense.

Using the Paleo diet as a starting point could let you create a diet that is suitable for your own set of needs and circumstances.

I mean, the truth is that what works well for one person may not help another person at all.

There are some major differences in the way that people respond to the same foods and the same diets, and this makes it essential to tweak diets to meet your own needs.

Plus, making modifications to the diet approach could help you create something you can actually follow.

In the long-term, if you want to successfully lose weight, you need to have a diet that can become your lifestyle.

Thankfully, there are many other diets and strategies that can promote weight loss. The site Be Healthy offers an excellent guide about many of the different diet types out there, along with their strengths and limitations. The approaches considered include keto, ornish, the South Beach Diet and the DASH diet.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, the simple answer is yes, Paleo and weight loss are connected.

This means that following the Paleo diet may well help you lose weight.

However, that may not be true for everyone in every situation and you may find yourself needing to tailor the diet to meet your own needs.

In fact, the Paleo diet is too challenging or too unrealistic for many people and a number of its restrictions seem unnecessary.

Starting with the principles of Paleo and moving on from there may well be a key way to improve your health, without torturing yourself in the process.

Want to Lose Weight and Keep it Off?

Weight loss is a huge industry, with no shortage of hype. But, long-term weight loss doesn't come from a crash diet or a popular fad.